Lupin the 3rd: Part III 13
Lupin III Part 3 13
ルパン三世 – Part III Ep. 13

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis

Zenigata chases a disguised Lupin, who can’t elude the detective. Instead, Zenigata’s sticky, capturing devices remove much of Lupin’s hair and clothing. Eventually, Zenigata snares Lupin in a giant, flypaper-like trap. Lupin tricks Zenigata into thinking he has a dynamite stick, allowing Goemon to rescue him. However, the ordeal leaves Lupin so exhausted, he can barely react to Fujiko’s seduction attempt to get his help on a job.

Fujiko takes Lupin to a large, castle owned by Madame Luisa. As this is a woman’s event, Lupin disguises himself as a woman. The main castle keep, where the party is held, turns out to be a rocket shuttle called Victoria. While returning from orbit to land, the Victoria is attacked by fighter jets. Lupin gets the women to give him their jewels to try to bribe the enemy. When they land, Fujiko reveals she was with the enemy military.

Meanwhile, Zenigata finishes work on a new device to capture Lupin. Since Lupin is a hostage along with the other wealthy women, Zenigata gets sent to deliver the ransom. There’s no money for Lupin, so Fujiko tells the freed women they can kill him as he hangs on a cross. A flock of crows interfere, allowing Zenigata to get Lupin. However, he eventually loses Lupin, who’s saved by Goemon, only to fall off a waterfall.

Lupin climbs a well shaft to discover he’s on Madame Luisa’s estate. He finds a secret entrance into the castle. There he discovers a room with figures, including Superman, Zenigata, and himself. He uses Zenigata’s clothing and enters the castle. A battered “Fujiko” is there, who’s actually Madame Luisa. She wants Lupin to kill her as she is disfigured. Lupin refuses, so she kills herself. Outside the castle, Lupin thwarts Zenigata, only to have something supernatural done to him by a crow.

Thoughts/Review

Okay, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 13 was the absolute stupidest Lupin III episode I’ve ever watched. Then I learned that the writer of this episode was also part of the travesty known as Lupin III: The Legend of the Gold of Babylon.

Pure Nonsense

Nothing about Lupin the 3rd: Part III 13 actually makes sense. It is just a string of events that are stitched together. So as I understand it, Madame Luisa loses an eye and wants to die. But because she’s wealthy, she comes up with the most insane plan to accomplish this. She spend however much money on an auto-pilot rocket shuttle to disguise it as the central castle keep. Then she throws a massive party for 150 wealthy women.

After that, she disguises herself as Fujiko with a scheme to rob said women of their jewels and such. But while disguised as Fujiko, she is also working with some massive, guerrilla military force (with fighter jets) to hold the women hostage. Then she has Lupin tied to a cross to be killed, but then a massive flock of murderous crows attack everyone while eating all the jewels. Huh??? 😖

Magically, this massive, guerrilla military also happens to be on Luisa’s estate, so that Lupin can sneak back into what’s left of the castle. Well, first, he has to eat a raw crow. 🤦‍♂️But luckily, there’s a tunnel back to the castle, and a room with figures in it. And then when Lupin confronts Luisa, in her tattered Fujiko disguise, he learns that she would have killed him ’cause he’s a worm to her. But she wants him to kill her ’cause she’s missing an eye and thus ugly. So when Lupin doesn’t do it, she kills herself.

Seriously, nothing about this whole plan makes sense to me.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• When I saw Zenigata going after the obviously disguised Lupin, I had hoped it would be something better than whatever stupidity we got. That whole thing came off like some crappy cartoon rubbish, which maybe this anime is.
• What the smeg was the deal with the murderous crows? As I said, this episode is just things stitched together. I got the feeling that the bozo who wrote this was influenced by a lot of stuff he’s watched, so he just threw everything into the pot.
• Speaking of crows, what the smeg happened to Lupin at the end? The final crow’s eyes go red. Then Lupin’s eyes go red. And that’s the end of the episode. Irritating as crap since the next episode will almost certainly forget about this one.
• Goemon has two deus ex machina appearances to save Lupin out of the blue. But that’s better than Jigen, who does nothing.

In the end, Lupin the 3rd: Part III 13 is the worst Lupin III TV episode I’ve seen. And it is down there as part of the worst Lupin III stuff ever produced.